State News in Brief

Sheriff: Snowmobiler dies in avalanche in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY - Sheriff's officials in Utah say a snowmobiler has died after he was buried in an avalanche.

Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds tells the Salt Lake Tribune that the man was snowmobiling near Whitney Reservoir in the Uintah-Cache National Forest east of Salt Lake City at about 6 p.m. Friday when he was buried. He says the man's family pulled him out of the snow, but medical responders pronounced him dead at the scene.

Authorities haven't identified him but said he was from northern Utah. No cause of the slide has been released yet.

The Utah Avalanche Center says the area had moderate to considerable avalanche risk.

The Colorado Avalanche Information Center, which compiles national statistics, says 20 other people have died in a snow slide this winter.

Salt Lake City deputy chief accused of harassment

SALT LAKE CITY - Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank has confirmed that a deputy chief has been on paid administrative leave since November for allegedly violating the city's harassment policy.

Burbank says the matter concerning Deputy Chief Rick Findlay has not been concluded.

But the chief declined to elaborate in a statement issued Friday, citing confidentiality rules in personnel matters.

The Salt Lake City Police Department has seven deputy chiefs. Findlay is chief of the investigative bureau that oversees most major crimes in the city.

Findlay joined the police department in 1994.

Under city policy, harassment based on a person's sex, race, age, religion, disability, ancestry or national origin is forbidden.

Judge: Officer didn't kill Ute tribal member

SALT LAKE CITY - A federal judge has ruled that a Ute tribal member was not murdered by a Vernal police officer after a 2007 chase as his family claimed in a lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell of Salt Lake City, in a decision handed down Friday, said Todd Murray died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in northeastern Utah.

Campbell found Murray's family members offered "speculation rather than evidence" to support their claim that detective Vance Norton killed him.